What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Brinne]

Dear God, burgers AGAIN?!

The unique fury and fixation inspired by burgers and "a male character that doesn't aesthetically appeal to me" in an expansion as rife with actually substantive issues as Endwalker is sort of morbidly fascinating, if depressing.

Wait, no, I take it back. It's not fascinating. It's the most boring thing in the universe, actually.

[Raoabolic]

The unique fury and fixation inspired by burgers and "a male character that doesn't aesthetically appeal to me" in an expansion as rife with actually substantive issues as Endwalker is sort of morbidly fascinating, if depressing.

Wait, no, I take it back. It's not fascinating. It's the most boring thing in the universe, actually.

It's called lamenting mismanaged resources, it's not a hard concept, lol. Did you want the devs to show off the sundering or anything that was hinted at during the last decade? Too bad, have a very detailed scene that brings nothing to the story because twitter loves this stuff! It's like you are just plugging your ears and go "nuh uh, you just hate furries!" when people bring up the lack of a substantial story on an expansion that was meant to tie up a decade long build up. You can be critical with something you enjoy, SE won't ban you for that, I think, lol.

[Theodric]

The unique fury and fixation inspired by burgers and "a male character that doesn't aesthetically appeal to me" in an expansion as rife with actually substantive issues as Endwalker is sort of morbidly fascinating, if depressing.

Wait, no, I take it back. It's not fascinating. It's the most boring thing in the universe, actually.

You, yourself, not seeing something as a valid issue does not negate it being something other people are free to discuss if it is something that they feel passionate about or see as an issue with the game.

The thread in itself has been a place to discuss perceived issues with Endwalker across the board. Not everyone is going to agree with every point raised, though that isn't a necessity in the first place.

I'd rather not see bizarre attempts at gatekeeping what is 'allowed' to be discussed - especially when they're turning on posters who have contributed extensively to compiling issues with how Venat and Hermes were handled.

It's not like there's anything new to discuss until the next Live Letter arrives, either.

[Theodric]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

[CrownySuccubus]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

I don't think it matters. Not like Square-Enix, of all companies, is shy about over-commercializing its most popular characters, whether they're dead or no longer relevant or not.

Aka, the Sephiroth effect.

[Lucida3b]

I mean arenvald could learn a magic job? I wouldnt be surprised if he could be a arcanist or whatever. A lot of people who were apart of the resistence probably could as resistences require organization and certain skills which could be refluffed or useful for such a job.

Then again I dont know if we knew what he did before he joined the story do we?

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Then again I dont know if we knew what he did before he joined the story do we?

Well he does tell you his life story in the quests leading up to the drowned city of skalla, how he was a street rat robbing people to survive after his mom abandoned him. Then he became an adventurer. Yeah, it's not much. Also, he said he wasn't educated, so i don't think he could be an arcanist.

[Jagick]

While I have yet to finish Endwalker, thus far the venture to Garlemald is the single biggest let down so far. I realize it goes against the power of friendship and goodie two-shoes to a fault narrative of the main cast but some kupoing catharsis would be nice every once in a while, especially after everything that's happened, everything we've gone through. After everything Garlemald has done, they are finally on the back foot and crumbling from within. Everything before the Telophoroi were introduced in late 5.x seemed like Eorzea was gearing up to counter invade Garlemald and FINALLY dish out some divine retribution, crush their forces, and bring their aggressive people to heel. Lol nope, we're gonna risk sending limited soldiers and supplies behind enemy lines for humanitarian aid to people that up until now have despised us and tormented most of the world for years. Yeah, I know they're almost all tempered, but... they're more or less doing exactly what they were doing before that happened, just for another reason and for another master and I don't have much sympathy for the people that happily cheered on what the Empire was doing while they were the victors. I just really wish Garlemald itself, as a creation of the Ascians, could have been the big bad in need of taking down rather than them resurrecting Zenos, again, and pulling a new villain out of thin air, thus forcing us to rush to the rescue of our second biggest enemy for the last decade.

It's just so disappointing and underwhelming. It makes me wonder what Ishikawa had in mind for the story before she had to rewrite and change so much of it.

[aveyond-dreams]

As an aside, is anyone here interested in 'story focused' NFT's?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-en...-focused-nfts/

Granted, the article implies that it is up in the air as to whether or not the Final Fantasy games will be subjected to such a thing though as we no doubt all know, plans change and even a hard no can be reversed on a whim.

It wouldn't surprise me if we're never rid of any prominent characters because of a desire to potentially sell NFT's based around them in the future, though.

Every time this man appears in the news it always seems to be associated with something detrimental to people's gameplay experience, from the gutting of a classic Final Fantasy job like Blue Mage and quite literally dressing up as the posterchild for "Limited jobs!" to the constant pushing of NFTs despite widespread opposition amongst the people he is actually trying to sell products to. Under his watch, SE has produced countless failed projects and if left unchecked would have destroyed all the major brands that the company owns by now. If there is any evidence to suggest that he is fit to continue serving in his position, then I cannot find it. Yoship has already said that if FFXVI does not meet certain sales targets that the mainline Final Fantasy brand is in danger, because the series is no longer a household staple for a generation whose patience was exhausted by the original lackluster release of FFXV and the catastrophic launch of FFXIV 1.0.

Dear God, burgers AGAIN?!

I will continue bringing this scene up because it is the perfect example of the cringeworthy writing style of Endwalker which feels more like a walking simulator on a college campus at times than an expansion at the end of the world. Shadowbringers was exciting to play for me because there was always some level of tension there, with very little filler on par with the trolley sequence. Endwalker however wastes the player's time with multiple long treks in Sharlayan made even slower with the NPC that has to tag along behind you, and 3/4ths of the moon. So many people defend these out of place scenes as "oh but we need to alleviate the tension!" as if there weren't more logical and thematically on point ways to go about doing this.

In Shadowbringers, we would go back to our apartment in the Crystarium and have chats with Ardbert, who provided insightful commentary instead of just vomiting lore in a nonstop stream like the Sharlayans do. In Heavensward and Stormblood, we had our campfire scenes with our party members where we could look up at the sky and reflect on the adventure so far. That is what I expect out of this game - not Uber Eats in a college dorm. I will forever oppose this nonsense because if someone wants those kinds of scenes then they can already go play Persona and have an entire game's worth of them. I feel betrayed after having fallen in love with this game in ARR/Heavensward under the premise that this would be a game with high fantasy and sci-fi elements with a story that takes itself seriously and Endwalker ruined that.

While I have yet to finish Endwalker, thus far the venture to Garlemald is the single biggest let down so far. I realize it goes against the power of friendship and goodie two-shoes to a fault narrative of the main cast but some kupoing catharsis would be nice every once in a while, especially after everything that's happened, everything we've gone through. After everything Garlemald has done, they are finally on the back foot and crumbling from within. Everything before the Telophoroi were introduced in late 5.x seemed like Eorzea was gearing up to counter invade Garlemald and FINALLY dish out some divine retribution, crush their forces, and bring their aggressive people to heel. Lol nope, we're gonna risk sending limited soldiers and supplies behind enemy lines for humanitarian aid to people that up until now have despised us and tormented most of the world for years. Yeah, I know they're almost all tempered, but... they're more or less doing exactly what they were doing before that happened, just for another reason and for another master and I don't have much sympathy for the people that happily cheered on what the Empire was doing while they were the victors. I just really wish Garlemald itself, as a creation of the Ascians, could have been the big bad in need of taking down rather than them resurrecting Zenos, again, and pulling a new villain out of thin air, thus forcing us to rush to the rescue of our second biggest enemy for the last decade.

It's just so disappointing and underwhelming. It makes me wonder what Ishikawa had in mind for the story before she had to rewrite and change so much of it.

A Garlemald expansion would have indeed provided the sort of continued conflicts you express interest in, especially from military leaders who are uncompromising in their ideals and beliefs. I imagine that they would still humanize the Garlean people in different ways but in the end I did enjoy how they went about handling that specific aspect of Garlemald in Endwalker – it was still flawed in my view however because of the ridiculous decision to write Gaius out of the plot instead of trying to tie it together to the Weapons storyline. I think they did a good job of showing how not everyone in the Empire subscribes to the same mindset and the characters we did see were worthy of the screentime they took up.

(Ideally, such content like the trial series etc. should be made mandatory for not only story continuity issues but to enforce a skill check that this playerbase needs in endgame content. Especially if it would act as a filter for players whose aversion to more challenging battle content and Heavensward and Ivalice-style storytelling seems to overlap.)

[Jagick]

A Garlemald expansion would have indeed provided the sort of continued conflicts you express interest in, especially from military leaders who are uncompromising in their ideals and beliefs. I imagine that they would still humanize the Garlean people in different ways but in the end I did enjoy how they went about handling that specific aspect of Garlemald in Endwalker – it was still flawed in my view however because of the ridiculous decision to write Gaius out of the plot instead of trying to tie it together to the Weapons storyline. I think they did a good job of showing how not everyone in the Empire subscribes to the same mindset and the characters we did see were worthy of the screentime they took up.

(Ideally, such content like the trial series etc. should be made mandatory for not only story continuity issues but to enforce a skill check that this playerbase needs in endgame content. Especially if it would act as a filter for players whose aversion to more challenging battle content and Heavensward and Ivalice-style storytelling seems to overlap.)

I do enjoy the shades of gray in that regard, especially in that not every Garlean is the same. More of that would be fun to work with. But arriving in Garlemald and trying to figure out how to not kill the poor, poor tempered Garlean soldiers that would happily fight us to the death even if they weren't tempered? They were laying on the concepts of 'if you kill your enemy you're as bad as them' a little too thick. Sometimes I'd rather the people in the story be a little more emotional and human than just... the good guys. I think that's the biggest issue with FFXIV's story as a whole though, especially in Endwalker. The protagonist has no emotional agency (or agency in general) and everyone acts like robots that have a fleeting emotion and then are immediately over it, regardless of what's happening.